6 Important Factors To Ensure Project Team Motivation in 2024

BACKGROUND

Organizations and businesses need to be effective and want steady advancement. We see helpers as interior or exterior.

 They address the individual’s unique needs, for example, development, social endorsement, security, and so forth. Outer inspirations concern ecological components conveyed by the association with the person. 

 There are many factors, which affect the Project Team Member motivation, which include: 

• Interpersonal Interactions 

• Type of Tasks
• General Working Conditions
• Empowerment of individuals in a project team
• Opportunities for Personal Development, and 
• The Compensation/ rewards/ incentives they receive Seiler, Lent, Pinkowska, & Pinazza, (2012).

The present period is profoundly aggressive, and associations paying little mind to size, innovation, and market centers are confronting low motivation levels of employees and poor project performance. To overcome this, we need to identify the motivational factors that can help an organization motivate its employees to perform better on projects.

THE ROLE OF PROJECT TEAM MOTIVATION

What is the need for motivated employees? The answer to this question is survival (Ring & Van de Ven, 1994). Motivated team members are required to quickly develop work environments of the new time. Persuaded representatives work for the survival of the association. They are progressively inspired when contrasted with discouraged and tired workers.

To wind up increasingly compelling, the supervisors need to comprehend what inspires representatives inside the jobs they are performing. Among every one of the capacities a trough performs, rousing representatives is the most muddled one to design and do because the explanations behind the inspiration of various workers on various occasions are continually changing as per their requirements. For example, research suggests that an employee’s income increases and money plays fewer motivational roles. It is also observed that as employees get older, interesting work motivates them.

PROBLEM STATEMENT

In today’s era, where resources are scarce and information overloads, employees are now considered an important asset for an organization. They also need to be treated as real assets in the project environment. It is observed that most of the time, human resource needs are overseen in the project environment while beating the triple constraints of “time-cost-scope.” While according to project management literature, in every project, we generally use three kinds of resources (i-e) “Man-Material-Machinery.”

 Human resources should also be considered a very important and critical resource. The success of every project depends upon well-managed and efficiently planned and used resources. When we take human resources as an important resource, we concrete our path to success (Jamali, El Dirani, & Harwood, 2015). Humans always need appreciation and motivation for whatever they did well to get re-energized for the next levels of assignments. Therefore, a study is required “to examine the role of motivation factors to motivate the project team members. Moreover, the study will investigate the effects of the motivation of project team members on project performance.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

This research will cater following areas:

Q1: What is the effect of interpersonal interactions on the motivation of project team members?

Q2: What is the effect of the type of tasks on the motivation of project team members?

Q3: What is the effect of general working conditions on the motivation of project team members?

Q4: What is the effect of empowerment on the motivation of project team members?

Q5: What is the effect of personal development on the motivation of project team members?

Q6: What is the effect of compensation on the motivation of project team members?

Q7: What is the effect of the motivation of project team members on project performance?

FACTOR 1: INTERPERSONAL INTERACTIONS

It deals with the interaction with the people working with team members as a part of the same team or as a part of another team that interacts with other teams occasionally based on the work requirements.

 The parameters which can affect motivation while interacting with other team members, Whether they are from the same team or another team. How enthusiastic are those people about work? How seriously and how passionately do they work to achieve their work outcomes? How hard do they work? How efficiently do they work, and how effectively do they work to get the specified outcome from work? Another motivating factor under interpersonal interaction is how supportive the other team members are, whether they help other team members while achieving the desired results and whether they guide other team members to work efficiently and effectively.

 Working with the team is always helpful in many aspects, which can reduce the level of difficulty and helps to motivate the whole team members, which ensures timely project completion. Moreover, with the help and cooperation of teamwork, one can easily achieve what one wants, even if sometimes it gives us more than our expectations (Hopp, 2018). Teamwork can develop more accuracy and efficiency in the work assigned to them because every team member is fully involved in the whole situation.

 Further, teamwork can resolve the most difficult situation into the easiest one without hesitation because they know that the work they have done is achieved through the full cooperation of the team. Sharing Goals with other team members is very important because when your team is not fully aware of your goal, how can you achieve or initiate its achievements toward its goals? So, to know its goals, every team member needs to know every step of its achievement. Otherwise, it will face ambiguity that will lead to failure.

 Moreover, team know-how is very useful, the basic step toward team achievement. To work in a good environment, it is important to have a good relationship with your seniors, especially your boss. In a complex and serious situation at your workplace, it is very difficult to face everything alone. So cooperating and having a good attitude with your seniors can help you reduce anxiety and stress. Which automatically helps in project success.

 Seniors’ behavior always matters a lot to their employees. If your boss is aggressive and harsh in every situation, that can make a bad impression on your career. Therefore, a boss must have a leadership style that can motivate their employees, which will automatically lead to employee motivation (Biron & Eshed, 2017)

FACTOR 2: TYPE OF TASKS

An employee or team member in any project needs to have a clear understanding of the task. Having unclear tasks and not a clear goal and objective in mind allows people to diverge their focus from work. Also, the congruence of the task with the professional caliber, attitude, and competency of the person assigned the task is equally as important as any other thing in the project. When a task is assigned to a team member according to his/her caliber and expertise, he/she feels comfortable and confident in performing that task and remains motivated.

 Many people like to work on various things, and they like to have different variety of tasks so that they can show their talent in different working dimensions. They take every new task as a challenge, making them feel motivated. Clear tasks with specific goals, targets, and objectives allow workers to compute and analyze their performance on the task, and they can compute the amount of work done and the amount of work remaining. It allows them to stay away from the state of uncertainty and keeps them motivated (Shurrab & Hussain, 2018)

FACTOR 3: GENERAL WORKING CONDITIONS

General Working conditions have a great impact on the motivation of workers. It includes every aspect of the work environment, whether resources, company, reputation, compensation, job security, job satisfaction, or whatnot.

 When we talk about resources, they can be financial, human, work, or machine resources. Having adequate financial resources to work on a certain project is taken as a high motivator for an employee to work on any project (Shurrab & Hussain, 2018). Similarly, the availability of necessary human resources and necessary work and machine resources allows a project team member to work freely and confidently on the project activities.

 Some people like to work, and they enjoy their work. All they need is a good working environment and adequate working space, and that is all. On the other hand, some people work for rewards and incentives. They need good work and private life balance, monetary rewards, compensations, incentives, appreciation, and other motivating factors. Upon receiving them, they feel motivated (Seiler, Lent, Pinkowska, & Piazza, 2012

FACTOR 4: EMPOWERMENT OF INDIVIDUALS

Empowerment is taken as the key to motivation by many researchers. (Testa et al., 2018) examined how they can show in associations to build worker inclusion. They presented three subjects which made the foundation of their talk results. First, the law worried about representatives’ investment privileges in basic association leadership.

 The second was an exploration article demonstrating that if an excess of opportunity and duty is given to the representatives, work can make them focused and rationally sick. The third and last one was that business condition is evolving ceaselessly; representatives and associations bargain daily. The investigation was executed through a writing study with a subjective strategy with an inductive and iterative methodology.

 They inspected specific old inquiries concerning redistribution of intensity, upward impact, and worker strengthening. The investigation demonstrated that the strengthening of workers and upward impact are firmly associated and subordinate. The end proposed that if the representatives see that they are enabled, they will feel inspired and ready to perform (Seiler et al., 2012).

FACTOR 5: OPPORTUNITIES FOR PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

Acharya, (2018) says employees and project team members feel motivated when they are given proper training for tasks to be performed and when they know that they are learning something valuable that will help them perform better and achieve higher positions in future endeavors of life. The idea of getting the proper training and getting promoted to the next level has worked very well for the employees in the IT sector, and the team members in the organizations who provide opportunities for further education, training, and professional certifications are more motivated to work and perform better than those who do not.

 Also, organizations with a proper hierarchy and a mature setup of promotions have more motivated employees because they have clear goals and targets to perform well in their projects and achieve a position in the organization. The opportunity to excel in a career with a clear career path and the ability to acquire useful experience is very important to keep employees motivated (Nuhn & Wald, 2016)

FACTOR 6: COMPENSATION

Compensation can be of many types times, it is typically monetary, and sometimes it is a well-desired materialistic thing. Sometimes just appreciation works more than anything physical. Similarly, if a project team member is rewarded with anything more than what is committed in return for the service, it is a highly motivating factor. Just receiving something good out of nowhere always motivates humans. When team members know that they will be compensated for their work and will receive a certain benefit for performing better at the task assigned or the project they are involved in (Shurrab & Hussain, 2018).

 The motivation of a project team member can be defined as how actively he/she participates in the work. The amount of interest invested by the team member in work is the measure of their motivation. This motivation can be from the people working in the surroundings and the other team members working together on a common project goal. Interaction with other members plays an important role in motivating project team members.

 Some team members get motivated when they receive the work according to their aptitude and caliber. They enjoy performing those tasks and perform the tasks with an intrinsic will. Also, a clear and goal-specific, objective-based task can motivate a team member. If a team member is provided with the working conditions desired by him/her, he/she will surely be motivated and perform better. If a team member gets the opportunity to learn new things from the projects and receive training for the specified task, this can motivate a team member. If a team member is receiving enough and adequate compensation for the work being performed, he/she will be motivated to perform better (Shurrab & Hussain, 2018)

PROJECT PERFORMANCE is a variable well discussed by researchers in many types of research. Project performance can only be measured after the project is complete and the users and stakeholders provide a review of the project. Based on that review, we can judge whether the project has performed well. From a project management point of view, all that is required by a project to be known as good is that it is executed as planned. When we say “as Planned,” it means all the resources are on the mark, and nothing less and nothing more is invested in the project, whether it is time or money.

 Similarly, if the project has kept the planned quality standard, the project has performed well in terms of quality. Based on this discussion, the main parameters to measure project performance are time, cost, quality, and stakeholder engagement. If the time elapsed on the project is as per plan. If the cost incurred on the project is as per plan. If the quality standards are maintained as per plan, and the stakeholders are managed and engaged as per plan, a project is said to have performed extremely well (Ahmed & Anantatmula, 2017)

Effect of project team motivation on project performance

RESEARCH METHOD

The two methods used to collect data are mixed and mono. The mixed method refers to the collection of data by both qualitative and quantitative methods. In contrast, the mono method refers to collecting data by either the qualitative or the quantitative method (Silverman, 2016).

 This research is quantitative; quantitative techniques are structured techniques to gather the data from respondents to study the relationship between independent and dependent variables in the presence of a moderator. This study used descriptive statistics, and descriptive analysis was used to validate the different hypotheses to test the relationship between independent and dependent variables.

CONCLUSION & RECOMMENDATIONS

This chapter will explain the justification of the hypothesis in detail, as their acceptance and rejection will also be discussed. This chapter will also explain the implication, theoretical implication, managerial implication, limitation to the study, future recommendation, and conclusion to this study. The following table shows the results of the variables.

Hypothesis Results

H1 Accepted

H2 Accepted

H3 Accepted

H4 Accepted

H5 Accepted

H6 Accepted

H7 Accepted

DISCUSSION

This study was planned to study the effect of motivational factors identified by (Seiler et al., 2012) and later endorsed by (Shurrab & Hussain, 2018) on the motivation of a project team member. And then the effect of motivation on project performance. This section contains the hypothesis relationship in detail, also their justification of acceptance and rejection.

 The first six hypotheses study the direct relationship between motivational factors and the motivation of project team members. Previous researchers have studied the relationship between motivational factors and the motivation of project managers (Seiler et al., 2012) and found positive relations. Hypothesis H7 studies the impact of motivation on project performance (Ahmed & Anantatmula, 2017)

H1: Interpersonal interactions have a positive effect on the motivation of project team members.

The first variable studied in this study is the impact of interpersonal interactions on the motivation of a project team member. The results of this study indicate that interpersonal interactions positively correlate with the motivation of project team members.

 The results show that the hypothesis is positive and accepted. Successful organizations take care of their project teams and provide necessary opportunities for their team members to interact with each other in a set and defined hierarchy. In a project environment, organizations should provide their project team with members a healthy platform to interact with their seniors and juniors (Seiler et al., 2012).

H2: Tasks positively affect the motivation of project team members.

The second variable studied in this study is the impact of the type of tasks on the motivation of project team members. The results of this study indicate that type of task has a positive relationship with the motivation of project team members. The results show that the hypothesis is positive and accepted. From previous literature, it is understood that organizations that take care of their project managers and provide them with tasks according to their expertise and aptitude have motivated project managers (Shurrab & Hussain, 2018).

H3: General working conditions positively affect the motivation of project team members.

The third variable studied in this study is the impact of general working conditions on the motivation of project team members. The results of this study indicate that general working conditions have a positive relationship with the motivation of project team members. The results show that the hypothesis is positive and accepted. From previous literature, it is studied that if project managers are provided with suitable working conditions for their work, they stay motivated (Seiler et al., 2012).

H4: Empowerment positively affects the motivation of project team members.

The fourth variable studied in this study is the impact of empowerment on the motivation of project team members. The results of this study indicate that empowerment has a positive relationship with the motivation of project team members. The results show that the hypothesis is positive and accepted. From previous literature, it is studied that if project managers are provided with authority and made a part of decision-making, they feel motivated (Seiler et al., 2012) and (Shurrab & Hussain, 2018).

H5: Personal development positively affects the motivation of project team members.

The fifth variable studied in this study is the impact of personal development on the motivation of project team members. The results of this study indicate that personal development has a positive relationship with the motivation of project team members. The results show that the hypothesis is positive and accepted. From previous literature, it is studied that if project managers were given chances and opportunities for personal development, e.g., opportunities for further studies and training, they felt motivated (Acharya, 2018).

H6: Compensation positively affects the motivation of project team members.

The sixth variable studied in this study is the impact of compensation on the motivation of project team members. The results of this study indicate that compensation has a positive relationship with the motivation of project team members. The results show that the hypothesis is positive and accepted. From previous literature, it is studied that if project managers were given suitable compensation and reward for their services, they feel motivated (Acharya, 2018) and (Shurrab & Hussain, 2018).

H7: Motivation of Project Team Members positively impacts Project Performance.

The seventh hypothesis studied in this study is the impact of the motivation of project team members on project performance. The results of this study indicate that the motivation of project team members has a positive relationship with the motivation of project team members. The results show that the hypothesis is positive and accepted. Previous literature studies whether project managers are motivated to perform better on projects in managing cost, schedule, scope, and quality (Ahmed & Anantatmula, 2017).

CONCLUSIONS

It is concluded from this research that employees are working in project environments. Suppose they are provided with appropriate motivational factors, i.e. (Interpersonal Interactions, Type of Tasks, General Working Conditions, Empowerment of individuals in a project team, Opportunities for Personal Development, and Compensation/ rewards/ incentives). In that case, employee motivation will improve greatly.

 All the factors will positively improve the employee’s motivation level. Hence motivated employees will work efficiently and smartly with the organization and work better to excel the organizational growth. They will show commitment to the work and organization. It is a very good sign for overall project performance.

From this study, it is concluded that organizations must focus on motivation through good Interpersonal Interactions. Type of Tasks, General Working Conditions, Empowerment of individuals in a project team.

Opportunities for Personal Development and Compensation/ rewards/ incentives to retain the motivation of their workers at a high level to achieve project goals effectively and efficiently.

The following hypotheses were made:

H1: Interpersonal interactions have a positive effect on the motivation of a project team member,

H2: Tasks have a positive effect on the motivation of the project team member,

H3: General working conditions have a positive effect on the motivation of the project team member,

H4: Empowerment has a positive effect on the motivation of project team members,

H5: Personal development has a positive effect on the motivation of project team members,

H6: Compensation has a positive effect on the motivation of project team members,

H7: Motivation of Project Team Members positively impacts Project Performance.

 Hypotheses were tested through a questionnaire distributed among the employees of different IT organizations.

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